The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) widened an investigation into an alleged $8 billion Ponzi scheme run by Allen Stanford, to include brokerage executives who invested clients’ money with the Texas billionaire, the Financial Times reported Tuesday.

The SEC informed Danny Bogar, former president of Stanford International Bank’s brokerage operations, and several brokers in recent months that it intends to file civil fraud charges against them in connection with the investigation, according to lawyers involved in the case and a regulatory filing.

The SEC declined to comment.

The move marked an expansion of the case beyond the initial criminal charges filed by the US Department of Justice against Stanford, four senior officers and an Antiguan regulator in June 2009.

Stanford, who has been in prison since his arrest, is scheduled to go to trial in January.